Ed Miliband ‘open to role in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet’

Ed Miliband has suggested he would be open to a role in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

The former Labour leader said he anticipates remaining as a backbencher although a frontbench role is a matter which could be discussed between the pair.

Mr Corbyn is seeking to reshape his frontbench team after securing an overwhelming victory over Owen Smith to continue as leader.

Mr Miliband has taken a back seat in the party’s affairs since standing down as leader in May 2015 following a disappointing performance at the last general election.

The Doncaster North MP has appeared on several occasions in the House of Commons, usually to debate issues linked to energy and climate change, although has kept a relatively low profile.

Asked about his future role under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Mr Miliband told a fringe event at the party’s conference in Liverpool: “I decided a year ago to be a backbencher, that was the best thing for me, that’s what I anticipate continuing but in the end these are matters for Jeremy and for discussion, but that’s what I would anticipate.”

Mr Miliband earlier insisted there is a need for Labour to unify behind Mr Corbyn’s leadership to enable the Opposition to take on a Government which is “clueless” about Brexit.

He dismissed the idea that Labour should try to become the “party of the 48%” who voted Remain at the EU referendum as “nonsense”.

Mr Miliband told delegates: “I see talk that we should become the party of the 48% - that is nonsense.

“I don’t just think it’s nonsense electorally, but it is incidentally because more than 400 seats in the country voted for Leave, but it’s nonsense in principle because it buys into the same problem people were objecting to in their vote, which is the old ‘We’re right, you’re wrong’.

“I was for Remain, don’t get me wrong, but we’ve got to hear people’s message that they’re telling us.”

Mr Miliband noted voters in Doncaster backed Leave by 69 per cent to 31 per cent, adding: “Let’s be really careful when we talk about this that somehow we should just be the party of Remain.

“Of course we’ve got to speak to Remainers... but we, the Labour Party, have got to speak to the people who voted to Leave as much if not more because they feel their voice has not been heard in politics.”

Mr Miliband went on: “At one level, this vote reflected a divided country and if I was doing the party conference speech on Wednesday - I’m not offering advice for those friends from the media who are here - I would be trying to sort of work out how you bring the country together because I actually think that is in a sense the task.

“I think that’s difficult but not impossible because I think if you’re a Remainer you’ve got quite a lot of similar concerns as the Leave voters in my constituency about housing, about the quality of jobs, about the nature of public services.”

Mr Miliband, on his own approach, said the first thing to do is to accept the referendum result and hold the Government to account over the type of Brexit pursued.

He said: “I didn’t want the referendum, all of that, but I think we’ve got to go into this in good faith and I thought Jeremy put it well on television this morning - hard Brexit is a disaster.

“Hard Brexit is a disaster not just economically but also what it means for our place in the world.”

Mr Miliband said the type of European cooperation desired in the future needs to be debated, including on climate change, security and foreign policy.

Exploring the Tory Party’s problems over Brexit, Mr Miliband said: “This Government is absolutely there for the taking.”

In reference to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, he went on: “I’m afraid the three horsemen of the apocalypse are clueless about what kind of Brexit they should have.

“Theresa May is leaving it to them so there’s a real opportunity here for us to mark out our territory, and I don’t believe these people who write us off all the time.

“We’ve been written off before as a party. Some of our biggest gains and most famous victories have been when we’ve been written off.

“I said yesterday we need to unify behind Jeremy, I repeat that tonight, but also hold the Government to account and respond to the gravity of the national crisis - that’s not an exaggeration - that Brexit means and show that we’re equal to it.”